Washing machine



May 9, 196'/ G. s. PADIAL 3,318,117

' WASHING MACHINE Filed Jan. 8, 1965 23 14 24 /o 55 1 f f ,556, 43m hx 3 52 INVENTOR G. SOLOMON PAD/AL BY #VX/@Troma United States Patent Oiiliee 3,318,1 17 Patented May 9, 1967 3,318,117 WASHING MACHINE Guillermo Solomon Padial, Apartado 13068, Madrid, Spain Filed Jan. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 424,232 9 Claims. (Cl. 68-21) This invention relates to washing machines and more particularly to rotary washing machines Lhaving flexible tubs.

Washing machines for the home are often made with an agitating member inside of the tu-b f-or turning or beating the clothes in order to free the dirt from the clothing. The disadvantages of this type of washing machine are that their use often results in torn clothes or in the wear ing-out of the clothing much earlier than -would take place in normal use. Moreover, although these machines usually have large tubs, their capacity is low since the agitating mem-bers take ia large Iamount of space.

In order to overcome the defects of this type of machine, lthe art has devised machines having tubs with no agitating members therein. These prior art machines normally have some type of flexible casing which either moves up and down, or is bounced in some way in order to wash the clothes. Although these machines provide an increased clothes capacity, they are apparently unable to effect a positive washin-g action and therefore, do not effectively clean clothes.

It is the primary purpose of the instant invention to provide an improved washing machine 'which is free of the defects of the aforesaid types of prior machines, which has a tub free from obstructions so that a large quantity of clothing can 'be washed at one time, and which is capable of providing a positive washing raction that forces and frees the dirt from the clothing without damaging the clothing.

Accordingly, one of the objects of this invention is to provide a new and improved washing machine having a tub free from obstructions, :but yet capable of providing a positive washing action.

A further object of the invention is to provide a new and improved washing machine having Ia large capacity yfor a given tub and size, and providing positive washing action, without damage to the clothing.

With these and other objects in view the present invention contemplates a collapsible, cylindrical washing tub supported rotatably `within a housing for holding the washing liquids. The tub is formed of a ilexible material, such as rubber, and is provided with -holes in the sides for permitting Wash `Water to freely enter and leave the interior washing area thereof. The lwall of the tub may `be -provided with accordion type pleats or waves for positively biting the clothing to force the dirt out. Also, means may be provided for maintaining one side of the tub wall partially collapsed and the opposite side extended to provide a squeezing action upon the clot-hing to free the dirt therefrom.

For a better understanding of the invention, as well as the novel features thereof, reference is vmade to the following description which should Ibe read in connection wit-h the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is -a side elevational view, partly in section, of a washing machine showing a tub construction made in accordance 'with the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical Sectional view of the tub shown in FIGURE 1 tand showing a position it assumes in the washing operation;

FIG. 3 isa view similar to FIG. 2, but showing the tub in centrifuging position;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic View of a tub in washing position illustrating an advantageous top and Ibottom con struction; `and FIG. 5 is an enlarged detailed sectional view of a porti-on of the side Wall of the tub shown in FIG. 1 and demonstrates the biting action of the accordion shape on the clothing during the washing operation.

Referring rst to FIG. 1, there is shown a rigid, waterproof housing 10 supported on adjustable legs 11. The `housing 1t) contains a washing tub generally designated 12. Tub 12 may be rotated about its vertical axis 'by a suitable motor 13, and may be tilted or collapsed by adjusting mechanism -generally designated 14.

The housing 10 is provided with an inlet nozzle 16 and an outlet nozzle 17 for introducing Vand exhausting Wash water from main chamber 18 of the housing. The main `chamber 18 is separated lfrom a lower chamber 19 which houses motor 13 by la water-tight partition 21. Top 23 of housing 10 is provided with an openable cover 24 for introducing clothing, detergents or other substances into the main chamber 18 and into the tub 12..

The housing 10 may ibe constructed of any suitable metal for retaining water. The metal. may be coated with porcelain or any other desired surface coating. The inlet and outlet 16 and 17 are preferably formed from brass to give long service. Cover 24 may be hinged, slidable or openable in any suitable fashion. ,i

Reference is now made to FIG. 2 which shows the washing tub 12 in section with a portion of the adjusting mechanism 14. The tub 12 essentially consists of a iiexible, cylindrical member 26 having an exaggerated accordion-shaped wall 27. The bottom of the cylinder 26 has a plate 28 inserted therein and held in place by a wire 29 which locks the flexible material of the cylinder in a concave annular groove 31 provided about the periphery of the plate 28.

The top end of the cylinder 26 is also provided with a plate 32 substantiallysimilar in design to the 'bottom plate 28. Cylinder 26 is also attached to plate 32 by a wire 33 which locks the flexible material of the wall 27 thereof into an yannular concave groove 34 which is provided in the periphery of plate 32. It is understood that the exi- Lble cylinder 26 may be secured to plates 28 and 32 by other methods which are all -well known to those skilled `in the art. Plate 32 is also provided with a pivotally mounted hatch 35 which may be brought into alignment with cover 24 to enable the introduction of clothing, detergents and other substances into the tub.

As shown in FIG. 1, a plate 28 is rotatably supported on a shaft 36 which extends from motor 13 through partition 21. The upper plate 32 is connected to one end of an arm 37 of the adjusting mechanism 14 through blocks 38 and 39. The other end of arm 37 is pivotally connected at 41 to the upper end of a support plate 61 carrying a hydraulic device 40 of suitable construction and the plunger 42 of which is connected to arm 37 to rotate such arm about its pivot point 41. As is indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2, plunger 42 extends up into a slot 55 in arrn 37 and is connected to the latter by a pin 56 extending through the side walls of such slot. The hydraulic device 40 is connected for vertical movement as a whole to an automatically operated shifting device 43 of suitable construction. The device 43 may include a hydraulic lift device one element 57 of which is seated on the bottom wall of housing 10 and extends up through the partition 21, the upper portion of such element 57 being secured by a bracket 58 to the side wall of the housing. The other element 59 of such hydraulic lift device is connected at its upper end, as by a pin 60, to the lower end of a support plate 61 carrying the hydraulic device 4l) and the pivot 41 for arm 37. The support plate 61 is provided with a block 62 suitably guided in its vertical movements in a known manner on the interior surface of such housing side wall. The operation of the hydraulic devices 40 and 57 may be controlled by electrically timed valves as is known in the art. The devices 40 and 43 are shown in FIG. l as being mounted on the wall of housing 1@ only by way of example and in this instance would have to be watertight. The blocks 38 and 39 are connected to the arm 37 so as to provide a rotatable connection between arm 37 and the plate 32 to permit rotation of tub 12.

It will be understood from the foregoing description, that in the use of the washing machine disclosed herein, the cover 24 and hatch 35 are opened and the clothing, detergents etc., are inserted into tub 12. The cover and hatch are then closed and water is permitted to enter chamber 18 through inlet 16. Chamber 18 is perferably lled to about three-quarters of its capacity. The water quickly enters the inside of tub 12 through a plurality of apertures 44 provided in wall 27. The motor 13 is then energized and lower plate 2S begins to rotate. The rotative movement of plate 2S is imparted to the exible cylinder 26 and transferred to the upper plate 32. In order to have a minimum of distortion of the tub and to positively transfer the rotation of the lower plate to the upper plate, tub wall 27 is advantageously provided with vertically spaced wire reinforcing members embedded therein such as the alternately spaced round wire loops 45 and rectangular wire loops 46 shown in FIG. 5 of the drawings. It will be noted that the round loops 45 are preferably located in the inner folds of the wall 27 and the rectangular loops 46 in the outer folds thereof. The tub wall 27 may be further reinforced lby circularly spaced outer cords 47 and inner cords 48 which extend throughout the height of such wall and the latter of which interlock with the wire loops 45 and 46. The cords 47 and 48 cooperate with the wire loops 45 and rectangular loops 46 to maintain the cylindrical configuration of such wall while both rotative and centrifugal forces are acting thereon in the operation of the machine.

Simultaneously with the starting of motor 13, hydraulic device 40 operates to rotate arm 37 from the position shown in FIG. l to wash position shown in FIG. 2. It will be observed from FIG. 2 that in this position of arm 37, the wall 27 of the tub will be compressed on one side so that the right hand end of the top plate 32 of the tub 1s closer to plate 28 than the left hand end, as observed in such gure. Thus as the tub rotates and each time the clothing is caused to come around to the right hand side of the tub, a squeezing action takes place which effects a positive removal of dirt and grime from the clothing. Also, as the tub 12 rotates, the pleats in the accordion wall 27 close each time they move from left to right. As shown in FIG. 5, this closing action of the pleats in the wall 27 effects a biting on the clothing, thereby also positively loosening and removing dirt and grime from the clothing. These combined squeezing and biting actions by the walls of the tub and the pleats or corrugations in the wall 27 thereof, effectively and efficiently clean the clothing.

Referring to FIG. 4, an alternative construction is shown for the plates 28 and 32. In FIG. 4, dished top and bottom plates 50 and 51, respectively, are shown which in effect form a chamber 52 which is more closed at the center portion 52 thereof than at the right hand side of the tub when the latter is squeezed in the manner above described by the arm 37. This particular type of structure possesses the advantage that it retains the clothing within the right hand side of the chamber 52 to give it an increased squeezing action and thereby provide greater wash-ing eiciency. The top and bottom plates 59 and 51 may be provided with inwardly protruding portions of any suitable configuration, such as the elongated dents o-r depressed portions 53 shown in FIG. 4, to induce a pushing force on the clothes so that the latter are advanced tangentially to such plates both by such pushing action and the pressing action induced by such plates. It will be understood that dents of this nature may also be provided in the plates of the embodiment shown in FIGS. l-3.

Referring to FIG. 3, tub V12 is shown therein in centrifuging position with upper plate 32 very close to lower plate 28. At the beginning of the centrifuging operation, the hydraulic device 40 is lowered as a whole by the device 43 to lower the arm 37 and consequently cause plate 32 to collapse tub 12 and squeeze the water out of the apertures 44 through the tub wall. At the same time, a pump sucks the water from chamber 18 through outlet 17 in a manner well known in the art and the rotational speed of tub 12 may be increased to give a better centrifuging action. As seen in FIG. 3, upper plate 32 is during this operation parallel to lower plate 28. After the centrifuging operation is completed, the adjusting mechanism 14 will again be raised to raise plate 32 away from plate 28 and back to the position shown in FIG. l to enable removal of the washed clothing.

The operation of the machine may be controlled by numerous timers commercially available in the open market. The wiring and constructional details of timers for operating a machine cycle are so well known to those skilled in the art, that no description of them is contained herein.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the above described disclosure is only illustrative of one aspect of the invention and that numerous modifications may be made in the same without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A washing machine comprising a housing, a flexible washing tub rotatably mounted within the housing and having a flexible, collapsible side wall and end retaining plates forming a clothes holding chamber, means for maintaining one of said end plates at an angle to the other plate during a portion at least of the cycle of operation of the machine, and means for rotating the tub while said one plate is so disposed.

2. A washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the side wall of the flexible tub is accordion shaped.

3. A washing machine according to claim 1, including means for moving said one plate from an angular position with respect to the other plate to a parallel position relative to the other plate while collapsing the tub.

4. A washing machine according to claim 1, wherein each of said end plates are dished in the centers so that a restricted compartment within the clothes holding chamber is formed to retain clothing.

5. A washing machine comprising a housing, an inlet for introducing water into the housing, an outlet for exhausting water from the housing, a exible tub having an eXtendible and collapsible side wall and upper and lower retaining plates for holding clothing Within the tub, means rotatably supporting said tub within the housing, a selectively openable hatch in the upper plate for introducing and removing clothing from the tub, said side wall having a plurality of apertures for permitting water to freely enter and leave the tub, means for rotating the tub, and means for moving the upper plate to an angular position relative to the lower plate so that one' portion of the wall is collapsed with respect to other portions of the wall and the clothing is squeezed when passing the collapsed portion of the wall.

6. A washing machine according to claim 5, wherein the collapsible side wall of the tub is accordion shaped so that the collapsed wall portions between corrugations thereof bites the clothing during rotative movement of the tub.

7. A washing machine according to claim 5, wherein the upper and lower plates of the tub are dished in the centers so that a compartment is formed to one side of the tub capable of retaining the clothing.

8; A washing machine according to claim 5, including means for collapsing the tub to squeeze the Water out of the apertures in the side wall.

9. A Washing machine according to claim 5 in which said tub Wall is made of flexible material and includes flexible reenforcing members arranged to maintain the con-guration of such Wall under the forces acting thereon in the operation of the machine.

6 References Cited by the Examiner IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner. 

1. A WASHING MACHINE COMPRISING A HOUSING, A FLEXIBLE WASHING TUB ROTATABLY MOUNTED WITHIN THE HOUSING AND HAVING A FLEXIBLE, COLLAPSIBLE SIDE WALL AND END RETAINING PLATES FORMING A CLOTHES HOLDING CHAMBER, MEANS FOR MAINTAINING ONE OF SAID END PLATES AT AN ANGLE TO THE OTHER PLATE DURING A PORTION AT LEAST OF THE CYCLE OF OPERATION OF THE MACHINE, AND MEANS FOR ROTATING THE TUB WHILE SAID ONE PLATE IS SO DISPOSED. 